Things we loved, and didn't, in 2011:

Winners/Losers, if you want to call it that, sure.

WINNER: (TRUE) INDIE FILMS
While I'm not about to tally up the numbers, anecdotally, I can say the indie box office seems far up this year compared to last (and we're talking true indies- much as we love Woody and SPC (more on that in a second), that's not what I'm really referring to here). We found people more willing to get out to the theater than ever before, and plenty of theaters previously not known for indie fare willing to step up and embrace non-minimajor film. But there's a caveat...

LOSER: (TRUE) INDIE FILMS THAT CAME OUT IN NOV/DEC
Never have I seen such a glut of films in the last seven weeks of the year (admittedly we added to this, and frankly, I won't do it again, because I feel that had we not both of our films would've grossed double what they did). The casualties are flying left and right, and films are being pushed out before their time to make room for the next big Oscar contender. A note to the mini-majors/majors: not every awards film needs to be released in the six weeks between mid-November and January 1st. Some will do better from word of mouth (I've heard DANGEROUS METHOD is great, but there are about ten films on my "must-watch" list ahead of it.)

WINNER: WOODY ALLEN AND ANYONE WHO COUNTER-PROGRAMMED STUDIO FILMS
MIDNIGHT IN PARIS didn't gross $60 million because it's Woody's best film in years (it isn't- that honor goes to VICKY CHRISTINA), it grossed $60 million because grown-ups would also like to go to the movies during summer for something besides R-rated comedy. A great strategy by SPC saw the film expand rapidly from six theaters to a near-wide release in four weeks, with no fellow competition in the mall-plexes except the absolute dreck the studios were tossing out. There's a lesson here. Also see: the $170 million gross for THE HELP.

LOSER: PRETTY MUCH ANYONE WHO WENT TO SEE A STUDIO MOVIE THIS SUMMER
You know you're in trouble when even the Pixar movie, usually the savior, doesn't even look good. A look at this summer's top ten says a lot. The top five are all sequels (and none were really worth watching save POTTER 7.2, which was not among the stronger in the series), and the only mild bright spots are BRIDESMAIDS (which is gold by comparison, but in reality 45 minutes too long) and RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, which is just oddly good. This is a world where PIRATES 4 grossed $241 million dollars just six months ago, and I'm willing to bet nobody reading this remembered that movie existed until just now.

DISHONORABLE MENTION: ANYONE CLAIMING THE DEATH OF MOVIE THEATERS BASED ON AN AWFUL SPRING
This seems to be the trend right now. Here's a great way to counter that argument: looking at the top 5 films of Jan-March 2011: (Rango- $123m, Just Go With It- $103m, Gnomeo and Juliet- $99m, Green Hornet- $98m, Battle:LA - $83m). All horrifically forgettable. If you put out bad movies, nobody will pay to see them. APES made a great $160m in summer, and I firmly believe it would've done $250m had it come out in March. Stagger it, folks.

WINNER: VOD DAY AND DATE
MARGIN CALL and MELANCHOLIA aren't the first success stories, but every time one of these does well, it opens doors to what I think a great model for indie films is. We've gone from doing no day/date films as of January last year to nearly 75% day/date films as of now. The first four films we have in 2012 are day/date. And not only is box office not affected, I suspect it's actually being boosted a little bit. More on this to come.

BIG WINNERS: MOVIEGOERS IN 2012
There is so much great film coming down the pipes, I think we're all in for a lovely ride for the first nine months of the year. If you're not excited, you should be.